Pokemon: The Hidden Region of Itanelf
by rickgastly92
Summary: Near Pallet Town, there is a ten-acre forest that Celebi resides in. However, little does anyone know, Celebi is hiding an entire region known as Itanelf in the small forest. After his parents are captured by criminal agents, Celebi guides Roy, whom only has an Azurill as a companion, outside of Itanelf and into Kanto, where he begins his adventure to save his family.
1. Prologue

In the Kanto region of the world, there lies a small, unimpressive forest that is only several miles away from Pallet Town. No greed-driven company has sought to deforest this land for either timber or even space to build a new shopping mart. There wasn't even as much as rumors of ghost stories that could be associated with this forest. In fact, no significant history could be associated with this nameless forest.

Unless you're Professor Oak.

Professor Oak has dedicated many years to studying the rare Celebi. While he is one of the leading experts on this elusive Pokemon, he has been quiet about his suspicions about Celebi's connection with the forest, which he has privately named Celebi's Forest. Long ago, Pallet Town was home to an alarmingly large amount of unknown visitors. They posed no threat, but the fact that they had seemed to have no knowledge of even the most basic information of the Kanto region, the police force became suspicious. They launched an investigation to determine where these people came from, but they were unable to turn up any leads. With nowhere else to turn to, the police consulted the local Pokemon Professor, Oak, to see if perhaps an unknown Pokemon's power was perhaps the cause behind these strange people's appearances.

The professor's own investigation turned nothing up, as well, but soon the people vanished from the small town and there were no more unexplained visitors. The police decided to drop the case, but Oak's curiosity remained. Through investigation, he learned that visitors could not have come from the neighboring Pewter City. One day, he stumbled across Celebi's Forest and thought to himself that this place, while small, could be a great hiding place. Naturally, he found nothing in the forest after many hours of searching, so he decided to leave the case alone.

However, in the near future, he had started more studies on Celebi. In his readings, he stumbled upon an old legend. In Kanto, there was once this leader of a powerful and unidentified tyrant. Not much is known about the tyrant except that he attempted to extend his power all throughout Kanto. A group of powerful rebels fought the tyrant with, armed with nothing but their Pokemon. It was believed that Celebi watched over the brave warriors and protected them. It was also believed that Celebi provided the rebels with a base of operations impossible to be found by outsiders. This secret base provided the rebels with a large enough advantage to eventually bring the tyrant to his knees and banquish his influence in Kanto. The rebels then disappeared after accomplishing this feat, and some experts believe that they resided in the secret base.

Professor Oak's own studies of Celebi suggested that the last time Celebi had been seen in the Kanto region was in the vicinity of Pallet Town, which is the reason he decided to take residence in the small town. After reading the legend, he was convinced that Celebi's Forest was the location of the rebel's secret base and dwelling. Obviously, he never made this claim public since he lacked any kind of proof. This turned out to be beneficial to his credibility, because his theory was incorrect:

The forest's secret inhabitants to not refer to it as Celebi's Forest; they call it Itanelf.


	2. Chapter 1: Roy's Escape

Itanelf is a large region. In fact, it is roughly one fourth the size of Kanto, and yet the powerful Celebi hides it in a ten-acre forest outside of Pallet Town. Unbeknownst to any of the inhabitants of either Kanto or Itanelf, the only way in or out of Itanelf is through the river in Vamil Forest, located outside of the large city of Dadger.

The Vamil River would have been the answer to many of Itanelf's inhabitant's prayers.

The dark and gloomy clouds over Dadger only reflected the feelings of its residents. Its leader, Governor Grayz, is clearly a corrupt man. Dadger's residents have nicknamed him "General Grayz", because he has been associated with high-ranking officials in Forrel, an underground criminal organization whose currency is powerful Pokemon. Pokemon they'd often steal from Dadger's residents. There is a private war going on between the poor and Forrel, and Forrel is receiving support from the wealthy citizens.

Forrel is winning.

Rick Burnz is highly respected trainer in Dadger's small Resistance. He, his wife Arlett, and their six-year-old son, Roy, lived in a small cottage in the Vamil Forest. Despite the dark days that inhabited Dadger, the small family was able to keep up an atmosphere of joy about their home. Arlett and Roy had found an Azurill when Arlett had taken Roy to play by the river the day before, and the young Azurill had taken a quick liking to Roy. The two had already become close companions, a relationship that both Rick and Arlett cherished.

On this night, the Burnzs had decided to eat dinner outside. Rick's plate was empty and he had begun to wash Arcanine. He was spraying Arcanine with a water house, which intrigued young Roy.

"Dad? Why are you giving Arcanine a bath?" Roy inquired.

"Because, like us, Pokemon need to be clean, too," Rick answered.

"I know, but isn't Arcanine a fire Pokemon? And doesn't water hurt fire Pokemon?"

Rick laughed. "Yes, Roy. Very good. I see you're paying attention to what your mother and I teach you. Normally, yes. But this is a small amount of water, so it won't do anything to him. Also, I've specially trained Arcanine to be more resistant to water attacks."

"So when Azurill learns a water move, he won't be able to hurt Arcanine?" Roy asked incredulously.

"If I've trained Arcanine right, then hopefully not."

"Wow! I can't wait to become an awesome trainer like you!"

"You can't become a great trainer if you don't finish your dinner!" Arlett playfully said to her son.

"I don't want to! I want to play with Azurill!" Roy responded.

"Roy, listen to your mother. A Pokemon can't be trained properly by a trainer that doesn't eat his veggies," Rick said.

Roy proceeded to eat his dinner. Rick caught Arlett's eye, and he gave her a little wink. She couldn't help but smile.

The Burnz family knew the consequences of being leaders in the Resistance and standing up to Forrel and General Grayz. So even though they tried their best to live life with a positive outlook, it's safe to say they may have, at times, imagined that their current way of life would end bleakly. It's one thing to imagine something and an entirely different thing to actually experience it, however.

Off in the distance, multiple shouts could be faintly heard. The Burnz were puzzled at first. But soon, the phrases "Rick!" and "They're coming!" could be clearly heard, and Rick and Arletts' demeanors changed entirely. Rick dropped the water hose, pulled the lone Pokeball from his belt and summoned his Scizor. Arcanine perked up, and instinctively performed an aerial Flame Wheel in place. Upon landing on his paws again, the fiery heat of his Flame Wheel had completely dried him off. Soon, two of Rick's comrades joined the family. One was riding upon a Dodrio, and the other was on a Rapidash. Rick had become completely serious.

"Forrel?" Rick asked.

"Worse! The General sent his right-hand man!"

"Pike and his goon squad. Ok, you guys know the drill. We do this with stealth. Get to closest forest lines. Arlett –"

"Get to the hiding spot, I know." Arlett drew her Pokeball and summoned her Altaria. She grabbed Roy and Azurill, climbed on Altaria, and they flew the opposite way Rick's comrades had come from while keeping low to the ground.

Holding on tightly to his mother and Azurill, Roy was as frightened as he had ever been. Arlett was trying her best to comfort him with phrases such as "It's okay" and "We'll be fine" were to no avail, neither for him nor her.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a stone pillar erupted from the ground and struck Altaria. Arlett, Roy, Azurill, and Altaria all hit the ground hard. A group of five men and a Golem jumped out from behind a nearby tree.

They had been ambushed.

Arlett didn't allow herself to be caught off guard. She quickly composed herself, put Altaria back in the Pokeball, drew her second (which was also her last) Pokeball and summoned her Sceptile. However, before her Sceptile could even look in the direction of the Golem, three Fire Blast attacks and an Ice Beam from all sorts of directions had made contact with Sceptile. She fell down immediately, unable to do anything to protect Arlett and Roy. During the confusion, Roy just stood there next to his mother, petrified. The forest that had served to protect Arlett and her family was now being used against them. Rather than start to panic, Arlett's suspicions grew.

_They have this planned out too well_, Arlett thought. _They knew I'd make a getaway on Altaria and have a Sceptile._

More men and women appeared from the tree lines, all with various fire and ice type Pokemon. The Golem's owner stepped out to great Arlett, whom pulled a Pokeball from his belt and summoned an Electabuzz.

"It seems that Rick should pick his friends more carefully, Mrs. Burnz."

Arlett's eyes grew wide, but before she could react, the Electabuzz used a weak Thundershock to knock Arlett out.

"Mom!" Roy cried out. He fell down to his hands and knees besides his unconscious mother. Azurill, terrified, stood between Roy and the Electabuzz's trainer in a desperate act of protection. Seeing this, all of the men and women laughed. Roy was sobbing uncontrollably, and the Electabuzz's trainer was approaching them. He was now ten feet away, and Azurill braved a weak Bubble attack. The trainer shielded himself with his arms when the attack made contact. However, this only angered the trainer instead of inflicting damage.

"Gah! Electabuzz! Thunderbolt that vermin!"

Electabuzz glew with electricity and let loose a powerful beam of electricity toward Azurill and Roy.

However, a fast flame jumped in between Azurill and the Electabuzz. The flame offset the Thunderbolt, revealing Arcanine. The group of villainous trainers were stunned speechless, and Arcanine took advantage of this moment to Fire Blast everything in sight. Electabuzz went down, as did many of the ice type Pokemon gathered near the tree lines. The Pokemon that didn't faint soon gained their composure, but it was too late. Arcanine expertly put Arlett, Roy, and Azurill on his back and he ran past the trainers with great speed in the same direction Altaria was originally going.

Arcanine was currently racing alongside the river in the forest. Arlett was still unconscious, and Roy was still paralyzed with fear about what was happening. Arcanine soon was running in a clearing in the forest (which still contained few trees), where he saw the shadows of the group of flying type Pokemon that were pursuing them, the leader of which seemed to be a Fearow. All of them were using Gust attacks to try to hit Arcanine, but he was too fast for them to try to hit him with a ranged attack one hundred yards from the ground. However, Arcanine was starting to feel the strain of having to carry Roy, Arlett, and Azurill. The flock was now considerably closer, and a few of them were even trying to trackle Arcanine now. The tired Arcanine narrowly dodged a Gust attack, and the leader Fearow decided to make his move. With a powerful flab of his wings, he sent a mighty gust of wind at Arcanine, which hit its mark. Arcanine and his party hit the floor hard, where two Pidgeot immediately grabbed the unconscious Arlett and hastily flew off with her.

Arcanine needed a few seconds to recover, but they were seconds Arlett couldn't afford. By the time Arcanine was able to fire Flamethrower attacks at the fleeing Pidgeots, they were too far away, to the distraught of Roy.

"Mom! No, Mom! Come back!" Roy shrieked. He had tried running towards the direction the Pidgeots were fleeing, but it was too no avail. Arcanine was also visibly distraught at losing Arlett, but he had to act now. He swat away the Pokemon that tried to attack him and dodged the Gust attacks while also letting loose Flamethrower attacks. Despite the advantage the bird Pokemon had, Arcanine was holding his own. Upon seeing his team being picked apart, the cowardly leader Fearow was hesitant to engage the Arcanine in one-on-one combat and decided to instead wait for his team to pull themselves together. Arcanine once again picked up Roy and Azurill on his back and continued running the same direction along the river, which was not the same direction the Pidgeots had taken Arlett.

"No! Arcanine! They took Mom that way!" Roy wailed, but Arcanine had no choice but to continue along his current path.

Now, Roy had riden on top of Arcanine for fun many times before this day. And whenever Arcanine was about to maneuver in a way that Roy might fall off, he would signal Roy by shooting off a weak Ember to the left, which meant that Roy needed to hold on tight to Arcanine's fur.

Arcanine gave that signal now. Even though Roy was distraught, he immediately understood and (with Azurill perfectly secure) made his grip on Arcanine tighter. Arcanine made a great leap and rolled over to where his legs were now facing the sky and Arcanine had a perfect view of the flock. He now saw that there were eight flying Pokemon in all, including the Fearow, and they were gaining on Arcanine. In the same motion, Arcanine attacked with a Fire Blast, and it hit one of the winged pursuers. Arcanine, still mid-leap, finished his rollover and landed on his feet, Roy and Azurill still safe. Fearow panicked and slowed down to where he was in the back of the flock. Arcanine did his jump, roll, Fire Blast maneuver once more. He hit a Pidgeotto, who then crashed into a Pidgeot. Arcanine had taken out two birds with one stone… more or less. Arcanine continued this until only Fearow was left. Arcanine stopped running and gently let Roy and Azurill off of his back. Fearow attempted a Quick Attack, but Arcanine easily won out with Slash. Taking advantage of Fearow being stunned by the blow, Arcanine hit Fearow with Flamethrower.

However, Fearow was feining being stunned; right before the Flamethrower made contact, Fearow began to glow a bright orange and arced above the Flamethrower and towards Arcanine with impressive speed. Unable to react quickly enough, Fearow hit Arcanine head-on with a powerful Sky Attack. Arcanine was weak from the chase, and Roy and Azurill could only watch in fear as Fearow then proceeded to unleash a Fury Attack on the weakened Arcanine. Arcanine attempted to fight back with an Ember, but Fearow easily dodged and finished Arcanine off with a Wing Attack. Arcanine fell to the floor, unable to battle.

After watching his father's beloved Arcanine fall victim to Fearow, Roy and Azurill scrambled to the river and jumped in, allowing the current to take the two of them away from the Fearow. However, the winged Pokemon was not interested in a small child and weak Azurill. His prize was the infamous Arcanine, the Pokemon that had done so much damage to Forrel and was such an inspiration to the Resistance. Fearow wrapped his talons around Arcanine and took off back towards Dadger.

Near his family's cottage, Rick and his two comrades hid in the tree lines and waited for Forrel agents to show up. He was paired up with August while Larry waited elsewhere.

August asked Rick "Are you sure you should have sent Arcanine after Arlett? I think she can handle herself. After all, she has Altaria and Sceptile with her."

"Yes, I know. But… I have a gut feeling." Rick didn't elaborate any further than that. Rick's only other Pokemon was Scizor. While he doesn't have Arcanine's battling experience or extensive history with Rick, Scizor was another valuable Pokemon to the Resistance.

Rick began to grow curious at the delayed silence.

"Are you sure they're sending agents here?" Rick asked.

"I'm positive," August replied.

During stealth operations such as this one, Rick preferred to stand behind Scizor. Due to his reflective steel coating, Rick was able to see behind him just by looking at Scizor's back. While he was doing so at this moment, he caught August give a nod towards his companion, Machoke. At that moment, Rick knew he had been double-crossed, but he reacted swiftly. Before Machoke could sucker punch them, Rick shouted out "Behind!" to Scizor. Scizor immediately spun around and caught Machoke off guard with a swift Metal Claw to the face, knocking him down instantly. August immediately summoned his Hitmonchan, and Larry sprang out from nowhere with both his Flareon and Seviper. Scizor let loose a powerful gust of Silver Wind at the oncoming Flareon and Seviper, knocking both of them into trees.

August shouted, "Hitmonchan, Fire Punch, now!"

Hitmonchan punched at Scizor with Fire Punches with the expertise of a professional boxer, but Scizor, despite being at a disadvantage just by being both a steel and bug type, used his metal claws to deflect the many blows. Both Pokemon were moving at speeds faster than humans could move, and the heat of the Fire Punches was starting to take a visible toll on Scizor, whom began to wince at each blocked punch.

"Deflect and use Headbutt!" Rick commanded.

Scizor used a Metal Claw attack to ward off Hitmonchan's last Fire Punch, which caught Hitmonchan by surprise. He stumbled back a few steps, and Scizor floated a few feet in the air and delivered a punishing Headbutt downwards onto Hitmonchan's head, knocking him out and onto the ground instantly. Scizor then immediately used a small gust of Silver Wind to knock August onto the dirt.

Rick turned to look at Flareon and Seviper, but he saw that he was surrounded by at least twenty Forrel agents and even more tough-looking Pokemon. And Pike, General Grayz right-hand man, was there, too.

"Well well, the infamous Rick Burnz!" Pike cheered. "I knew you were skilled, but that little one-on-four battle was quite impressive and a delight to witness!"

"Hey, Flareon and Seviper weren't –" Larry started.

"Quiet, fool!" Pike harshly ordered, the cheer from his face gone.

Scizor, with great speed, went on to Metal Claw and Silver Wind all of the Pokemon that he could. This did not seem to phase Pike at all. Rick saw Pike give a signal with his hand, and two Machamp approached. Rick's stomach dropped at the sight of this, because the two Machamp were holding an unconscious person in handcuffs as a prisoner.

They had Arlett.

"Scizor, they have Arlett!" Rick shouted.

The tired Scizor stopped mid-attack and in a panic, flew towards the two Machamp. They were ready for him, and one of the Machamp Mega Punched Scizor, knocking him to the ground. Rick hastily returned Scizor to his Pokeball, which a Rhydon had promptly confiscated from him.

"No! Let go of my wife! Where is my son?!" Rick shouted at Pike, whom just stood there and smiled.

"Where is my boy?!" Rick continued to cry out before the Rhydon knocked Rick out.

Still having trouble accepting what had just occurred, Roy floated down the river with Azurill. The two of them had no trouble staying above the water. They were now approaching another patch of woods. Roy was all too familiar with this part of the woods. He and his father would travel down here all the time to ensure that their second hideout was secure. His plan was to do as his father instructed him if something bad ever happened: go to the second hideout.

Since he and his father always traveled by the river's side, he knew to look for a trio of trees on the left that had Oran berry bushes at the base of them, which was another landmark they used to find the hideout. It was whenever Roy entered the forest that Celebi came out of hiding, although she did not make herself known to Roy. She observed the poor boy, whose mother and father had just been captured by ruthless criminals. Having sympathy on Roy and knowing the Forrel would soon start searching for the boy, she did something she hadn't done in a long time: she opened the exit that led into Kanto.

Roy and Azurill continued to float down the river, and soon Roy had started seeing things in the forest he had never seen before. He was certain that he hadn't passed the trio of trees and Oran berries, but he felt he was in a foreign. He was more than surprised when the river took him out of the forest and into another clearing, a clearing he had never visited before.

"Where are we, Azurill?" Roy asked his companion.

"Zur-ill?" his tiny blue Pokemon replied, whom was also confused at this foreign place.

Confused, he and Azurill both climbed out of the river and walked around for a bit. He stumbled upon a sign that read "Pallet Town – 4 Miles Ahead".


End file.
